In an attempt to bolster the security of many open source tools used by governments within the EU, an initiative called the Free and Open Source Software Audit project (FOSSA) has put up rewards from €25,000 to €90,000. The bounty can be claimed by anyone who is able to find a significant vulnerability in the software.

The software selected was all open source software (meaning anyone can contribute to the development of the software) including some programs that are widely used by individuals and governments alike.

European countries are fining Uberwith a penalty for the way it handled a 2016 data breach. According to TechCruch, this breach could have been avoided if Uber didn’t store their AWS login information in plain text on GitHub. Making two-factor authentication mandatory for the private GitHub repositories may have also prevented the issue.

With the high frequency of data breaches in the Information Age, not many people actually understand the key concepts concerned with data storage, such as the difference between data privacy and data protection.This article elaborates on the distinction between data privacy and data protection, as well as the importance of having the needed systems to protect digital assets.

Senate Democrats introduced a new bill that would require any company that collects users digital data to treat that information with the same care that’s required from doctors, lawyers, and bankers. The new privacy bill won support from civil society groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology.

According to this article, Facebook had a data breach that allowed the private photos of up to 6.8 million users to be improperly accessible to many different applications for nearly two weeks before the company noticed the security lapse and fixed it. Furthermore, it took Facebook almost three months to notify the General Data Protection Regulation agency about the breach, disregarding their 72-hour notification requirement. GDPR regulations have their limitations, especially if they may not have been implemented correctly.

The Australian government has passed a law that forces tech companies to give law enforcement access to encrypted messages. The law is widely disliked by the technology industry, especially Apple who has been a long term proponent of privacy. The point is made that security experts believe so-called "backdoors" will allow the law enforcement to spy on normal people in addition to criminals. Designing a system in a way where there is a master key to decrypt everything (backdoor) may weaken the security of the system as a whole.

If you are one of the 327 million guests affected in the Marriott hotels data breach, this article provides tips on how to further protect yourself from a possible identity theft and misuse of your personal information.

Under the guise of giving their security agencies the extra tools needed, the Australian government passed a draconian law where companies will be obligated to hand over your encrypted data (linked to suspected activity) and could be fined up to 10 million Australian dollars if they fail to. This is the latest in the move of many governments to sacrifice freedom for a false sense of security.

This article states that the worlds biggest technology companies are competing to protect themselves from the first quantum computer. In theory a quantum computer would be far more powerful than current day computers, being able to break most encryption algorithms we use to protect everything from governments to banks. While building quantum computers is still far from happening, China has become a leader in quantum encryption (encryption algorithms that are less susceptible to quantum computing because of their fundamental design) and the Chinese government has made different kinds of quantum research a priority.